Sunday, February 16, 2014

Part Three: New
Approaches to Adult Learning, Embodied, Spiritual and Narrative Learning

This commentary is designed not so much to point out
the flaws of the Merrian’s section on “Spirituality and Learning” Tisdall’s definition
of “Spirituality”, but to caution adult educators from using her spiritual
philosophy with religious adult learners.

Before I comment on the Adult Learning theories of
Tisdall 2013, it is worth stating my perspective and background on the topics
of religion, metaphysics and spirituality in Adult Learning.

In
college, I went on a spiritual quest to know God. That quest had me first study
many of the leading cults and groups: Elizabeth Profit, Edgar Casey, Silva Mind
Control, NLP, Eckacar and others. I stayed away from the more dangerous social
cults, like Scientology. This path lead me to spending time at the feet of
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who lead the Transcendental Meditation movement in the
70s and also created the Science of Creative Intelligence. When I would go back
to visit him in Switzerland, you could find great minds like Richard Fineman,
Jonas Salk and Hans Selye hanging out discussing the relationships of quantum
physics, mind body relationships and health with transcendental research. It was
an amazing time. Later I became a specialized teacher of Transcendental
Meditation (TM) to the US Marines and the US Air force. Because of my previous
background, I also taught groups such as Edgar Casey, Urantia foundation, Catholic
nuns and Franciscan monks. Today I still can close my eyes in Samadhi on a NYC
flight to Africa. In addition, I still can do the Sankara traditional Hindu puja
in Sanskrit and siddha techniques. In 2003, I stumbled into a room of 4,000
Christians and choir of 300 people representing every race under the sun,
worshipping in waves of love, just a mile from the UN. Here I finally obtained
an inner dialog with God and meaning of my life working with poverty.

It is very important to understand the core values
that different religious adult learners have when setting up their programs. I
will present a few sweeping generalizations about the differences of the
religions that are worth the reflection of how we need to approach adult
learners of faith. First is that all religions are not remotely alike. All
roads do not lead to the top of the mountain, ask any sherpa. Jewish people
believe in the obedience of the laws and traditions to draw close to God. Muslims
also believe in traditions and laws but also doing the will of God. Hinduism is
about self perfection though the Patengeli’s eight limbs of yoga and scripture
to one day know God. Christianity is in the concept that God loves you and wants
a personal relationship with you. Christianity in the pure sense uses the Holy
Spirit of Jesus to transform the person from the inside out. Again these are
generalizations, However, if you want to transform the adult learner, you must
start from these deeply personal religious frameworks.

A warning about believing Tisdall's theories when
working with the religious.

A sensitivity that your religious adult learner’s values
and definitions of religious words have very different meaning than Tisdall’s
and new age vernacular. Tisdall's definitions of mercy and miracles are highly
watered down versions of Chrisitianity. Religious people have clear definitions
of right and wrong such as in premarital sex. These values have deep impacts on
the learning process. Both Christian and Muslim influence have deep motivations
to do God’s will, while Tisdall’s secular values clarification view can seem
highly offensive. Faith that God is in control and New Age Intentionalism are
in direct conflict with one another.

Deeply religious people (whether Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist
or Christian) have a deep love for God and the theology that comes from God.
Speaking on behalf of Christian adult learning, the transformation is based on
the fact that in a world that has rejected the student, they can be transformed
by a God who loves them and has a purpose for them.

If the Adult Educator adopts Tisdall’s theory (or
more honestly her religion of spirituality), they run the risk of insulting the
student’s background by denying a core character trait that gives their life purpose
and meaning. If academia denies the existence of God, miracles and patterns of
behavior laid down in God's / Jesus's teaching can be seen by the learner as supremely
arrogant. The learner will become guarded because their heart is not safe.

Tisdall's concept of Spirituality places the Adult
Learner in direct conflict with the core cultural and social values of the
student. Worse yet, because it is in denial of religious values, the
institution can be perceived as arrogant and even as a threat.

I knew a child who was
severely ADHD, Bipolar, ODD and had character disorders. On the night of his
planned suicide (because of teasing), he was hearing voices, his medicine was giving
him AIDs symptoms and he was under 100 pounds. He felt himself surrounded by
light and a voice telling him everything was going to be alright. At that same
time, people in a village in Africa and men in the Albany Rescue Mission were
praying for him. This young 19 year old man started throwing up his medicine
and did not take another pill until hit by the stress of a divorce 10 years
later. A PhD in Cognitive theory met the boy and upon hearing his story
responded, “Sounds like you had a really good day.” He simply smiled at her and
thought, “Idiot.”

Arrogance around any
religion will shut any readiness to learn down. This follows Malcolm Knowles
third androgyny
precept. “3. Readiness to learn.As a person matures his
readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of
his social roles.”

Tisdall's System (really an academic religion called
Spirituality), is nothing more than a reflection of the 80s and 90s New Age
movement. It is critical for the educators of Adult Learners to understand that
in Tisdall's quest to come up with a definition of Spirituality that might
transcend all religions, she must throw out the foundational value system that
makes religions work. Basically she threw the baby out with the bath water.

Tisdall’s view of the Spirit

The rejection of the use of Jesus or God (as a
personal relationship) is in fact interpreted as a denial of what is spiritual
to the Christian Adult Learner. To the Christian, God, Jesus and the Holy
Spirit are one. This trinity embodies what love is. The Holy Spirit serves as a
personal guide for transformation within the student, yet Tisdall throws this
out.

For people with trauma, rape or people who have committed
terrible crimes, the theology that “God forgives and forgets” is critical for
the personality to feel set free of the past and create a new life for their
future. This was key in the reconciliations in Rwanda and South Africa.

In contrast

·Tisdall's ideas on religious law seem to
be a rejection of religious law and accepts that whatever the collective
believes is true (similar to Kirshenbaum and Simon Values Clarification).

·Tisdall's definition is about the
purpose of me and not the purpose of God through me.

·Tisdalls' Spirituality is in denial of God
as a personality and that a relationship cannot be developed with God.

·Tisdall's Spirituality is in denial that
there is a Holy Spirit that can serve as a voice and spiritual guide in daily
living. Ironically it disconnects the person from a Spirit personality while
calling itself Spirituality.

·Tisdall's Spirituality defines no moral
right or wrong in human behavior.

·Tisdall's Spirituality is in denial of
any sense of holiness, that one type of behavior is more pure and godly than
another.

·Tisdall's Spirituality sanitizes out
local culture and rules.

Tisdall's concept of spirituality is what Maharishi
used to refer to as “mood making.” It is a false sense of holiness that I would
witness in Kripalu and within the New Age movement on a regular basis. Watching
the pretty yoga teacher furious because her BMW was scratched in the parking
lot is an example.

The tragedy of such mood making is that it does
create a false Sacred Face on the outside while the deeper issues requiring
painful transformation that needed addressing are ignored.

On a personal note, the rejection is a form of
persecutions and Elizabeth Tisdall is at the head of Christian persecution in
academia’s culture. The case of this is
public schools covered with posters of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bishop Desmond
Tutu, Nelson Mandela and even Gandhi who all were deep followers of Jesus
Christ. Their movements and teachings came directly from the Bible. Even Satyagraha
is not solely from the Hindu Scriptures, but a blend of the life of Christ
against the powers of oppression. Gandhi quoted the Bible often in the South
African revolution. One of Gandhi’s closest friends was Dr. E. Stanley Jones
who was an evangelical Methodist intellect who was with him until the end,
unlike in the movie made to depict his life.

The denial and silencing of Christians in both
higher education and in public is a growing issue of resentment from educators
of the Christian faith at all levels of the academic system:

Many years ago, the elite
of academia and religion believed the human race was the center of the universe
and the universe rotated around earth. All the empirical evidence and religious
beliefs seem to point to this as a truth. When science came out that this was
an illusion, that we were not the center of the universe, they were persecuted.
Today we have a TED lecture room of intellectuals that believe that their
individual spirits are at the center of their universe, that there is no
supreme Spirit to answer to. They believe only they shape the reality around
them or that life is all simply random. The level of arrogance about central
power of the solar system is still reflected into similar beliefs of that we
are the central personality power and the world spins around me.

Tisdall's concept of Spirituality is in fact a
defensive filter of the deeper reality of life. That the meaning of life is not
in the acquisition of knowledge or stuff. Meaning and purpose is discovered in
how we love and serve another.

A Spiritual Face of Mood Making

In
Tisdall’s article, "The Connection of Spirituality to Culturally
Responsive Teaching in Higher Education", she talks about how Maureen
Abbott left her Catholic upbringing for the Hindu Siddha Yoga (one of the eight
limbs of Patengali’s yoga) to find spirituality. TM is Siddha yoga of the Sankara
tradition, which I am a part of. It is important to note that although Samadhi
is profound, peaceful and healthy, it does not provide a direct experience with
the personality of God as referred to in Christianity. Even the state of God
Consciousness (the stage after cosmic consciousness), you do not receive a
relationship with divine personality, only an awareness of God. Note: she does
not discuss the millions of Hindus that are now Christian or why they
converted.

To
illustrate how disconnected Tisdall’s concept of Spirituality from God is, let’s
look at her paper linguistics. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul states, “God is love.”
Jesus says that our purpose is to “Love one another.” A word search in three of
her papers listed in reference below yields no account of the word "love."
Tragically, the value and quality that is more important than any other quality
in an Adult Learning Center is “love.” It is not even listed in the index of
Merriam’s book. Imagine that loveless Adult Learning Center?

How
can an Adult Learning theory about spirituality be so clinical as to not
contain words like love or Holy Spirit. How can we create an academic religion called
“Spiritual” when we must filter out the Spirit that makes it Spiritual. Like
“No child left behind,” I find her papers as simply self righteous mood making
and a naive representation of the word spiritual.

However,
Tisdall has proven herself successful in developing an academic cult of all
those who want to justify their personal religion of the self, and those who
share a distain of supreme authority, with no accountability to any higher
power than the institutions they report to.

That
being said, the educator of Adult Learning must be keenly aware of what their
student perceives as spiritual and what they do as two different things.